The Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health will host its next seminar series event Tuesday, Nov. 19, from 9 to 10 a.m. The topic of this seminar will be “Exploring Social Capital Within Coalitions and Communities: Our Approach, Results, and Lessons from Coalitions Focused on Reducing Opioid Fatalities in Ohio.” This is a free, virtual monthly learning opportunity open to the public.
Community coalitions are an effective tool for mobilizing response strategies to address public health issues affecting local communities. The effectiveness of these coalitions is, however, highly dependent on the social capital of coalition members (i.e., the power and resources embedded within) compared to the social capital of people who are not engaged. This balance of social capital within and outside of the coalition has the potential to influence the pace and efficiency of community coalitions as they seek to influence changes for public health benefit.
Presenters Emily Nelson, Owusua Yamoah and Sara Roberts developed a measurement approach to examine how social capital can be measured within nine counties in Ohio implementing the Communities That Care intervention. During their presentation, the speakers will describe how they used ego-centric network maps to systematically capture perceptions of social capital influencing the pace, efficiency, and equity of coalitions and the broader community context. Next, they will examine data across the nine counties to explore variability in perceptions of social capital accessible to increase adoption of evidence-based practices to reduce opioid overdose fatalities. They also will share insights into how results from this process can inform pace, efficiency and equity within coalitions focused on reducing opioid fatalities locally through implementation of evidence-based interventions.